


He was good, he was funny and he was brave.

by BuffyWoodhouse



Category: Merlin (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Canonical Character Death, Gen, M/M, Original Character(s), Orphans, Past Character Death, Pre-Slash
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-10-25
Updated: 2015-10-25
Packaged: 2018-04-28 03:23:15
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,506
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5075920
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/BuffyWoodhouse/pseuds/BuffyWoodhouse
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Merlin is surprised to find a young boy has been left in his charge - the son of his best friend, Will.</p>
            </blockquote>





	He was good, he was funny and he was brave.

It was a surprise, to say the least.

He’d been with on the training grounds, getting the seven bells knocked out of him by the king when a messenger had approached. Gaius had summoned him to their chambers stating that there was something _very_ important that needed to be dealt with.

Arthur had looked at him in annoyance realising this meant he would have to dismiss him. He wouldn’t deny Gaius assistance if it was necessary. Merlin knew he’d go twice as hard on him the next day, mind. He wouldn't get out of it.

After getting permission from Arthur, he scurried off back to Gaius’ chambers. His mind instantly went to supernatural threats. Merlin prayed that it wouldn’t be something that ate human flesh. He was still having nightmares over the Wilddeoren. _Oh, God._ What if there were Wilddeoren attacking the lower town making their way up to the castle? What if there was some deadly disease taking the city? Goblins? Trolls?

Then his mind went other places. What if it was his mother? What if she were sick or _worse?_ His stomach twisted. Gaius didn’t normally summon him for magical threats. It was normally Merlin that would find out about them anyway. This had never happened. Maybe he was in trouble. _Oh,_ maybe he’d found the soup stain in one of his anatomy books. Merlin had been meaning to tell him about that.

It was none of those things.

“Merlin.” Gaius said with a sigh when he entered his chambers.

“You wanted to see me?”

“Yes. Sit down.” Gaius didn’t sound cross. He sounded sad and was watching Merlin apprehensively. 

It was then that Merlin noticed the little boy sitting quietly at one of the benches. His arms were crossed and he scowled at Merlin. The boy looked familiar, though Merlin could not place him. Merlin tried to smile at him but the scowl remained so he looked away.

“Here.” Gaius handed him a letter, his body language apologetic. “I may have opened it.”

There was no _may have_ about it, as Gaius most certainly _had_ opened it. Merlin gave him a look before unfolding it to read. His brow furrowed as he took in the letter and he looked up at the boy in shock. 

The boy was Will’s son.

Marg, a friend of his from a neighbouring village growing up, was dead. She’d fallen prey to an unspecified disease not long since and she’d sent the boy to him.

The letter explained how Marg had discovered she was pregnant not long after Will had died. Merlin knew they had been flirting around each other for a long time but he hadn’t been there for the months before Will’s death. He hadn’t realised they’d been together.

After, she’d left her village in search for a better life. She’d moved to a town where she’d worked and eventually died. There wasn't much more information on her life to be found in the letter. It was even vaguer about the details of her death, so Merlin took that to mean it was particularly horrid.

He sat in silence for a while, trying to make sense of what he’d just learnt. His eyes involuntarily scrunched up and his hands came up to cover his face. He didn’t cry. He didn’t do that very often anymore. He was lost in a mix of frustration, grief and guilt. It was a feeling Merlin was familiar with so he knew how to stamp on it and recover. Now there was the biggest issue to deal with. What was he going to do?

He looked at the boy again. He certainly _looked_ like Will had as a boy. Though, in all honesty, he couldn’t quite rememberexactlywhat Will had looked like as a child anymore. It was too far away to him in his memory. Sometimes he frightened himself when he realised that the face of Will as a _man_ was becoming obscured too. It was a shock to realise his memories were becoming more and more hazy as the years flew by.

He had to help the boy. That much he knew. He’d just lost his mother and she’d been his only family. Merlin thought of himself at that age and how much he’d relied on his mother and, of course, _Will._  He started to plan quickly. The boy was maybe ten years old. That made him old enough to get a job. Perhaps he could speak to Arthur…

 _Arthur._ Merlin cringed at the thought. As far as Arthur was concerned, Will Jr. was the son of a sorcerer – a very powerful sorcerer, too. Would he lie to Arthur about his father? Would he just skirt around the subject of magic and hope that Arthur didn’t make the connection? Of course, without solid parentage people would start to say the boy was _his,_ wouldn’t they?  The servants in the castle were gossipers to be sure. There was even a rumour that _Gaius_ was _Merlin’s_ father, for goodness sake.

It was too much to think about right then. The most important thing was the boy; the boy that was now looking down at his feet with a dejected expression.

He was very skinny and pale, Merlin assessed, kind of sickly looking too. Merlin grimaced.

“Do you want something to eat?” he found himself asking.

The boy shook his head. He was shy. He wasn’t like Will in that sense then, at least not yet. Merlin supposed he wasn’t going to be… not after… and not seeing as… not when… he sighed.

“I’m Merlin.” He said, realising he hadn’t even got that far. No wonder the boy looked so miserable. Merlin was useless at this.

“I’m William.” The boy replied. His voice was a little shaky but rough. 

Merlin smiled, relieved to hear him speak.

“I should be heading out. I have errands to run.” Gaius announced. He lingered a few moments to collect his things and nodded to Merlin in reassurance. Merlin tried to at least _look_ assured. He didn't want Gaius to think his efforts were wasted. He wasn’t sure if he’d done a very good job, though. Gaius smiled at William and promised him a cooked dinner when he returned, at which William perked up.

Once Gaius left it was quiet for a while.

“I knew your father.” Merlin told him. At his age he’d have done anything to hear about his father so he thought this would be a good start.

William nodded.

“Theo... the man who brought me here told me.” William looked thoughtful. “What was he like?”

Merlin smirked, thinking about how to sum Will up. The first few words that sprung to mind where _not_ age appropriate. 

“Well…”

That was how he won him around. He launched into stories of his father, stories that only his closest friend would have known. Whenever Merlin had spoken to people about his father all he’d ever gotten was ' _he was a good man',_ followed by a list of his attributes. That’s not what Merlin had wanted.

William hung on his every word. He smiled and laughed, thrilled to hear that his father had been so funny, so brave and such a good friend. Merlin didn’t suppose Marg had spoken about him much.

Merlin made him some lunch after William admitted he hadn’t eaten since the day before. He presented him with a large chunk of bread and some cheese. The boy eyed it hungrily before devouring it.

There was a knock at the door.

“Come in!”

Arthur walked in. His eyes bounced between Merlin and the boy.

“Merlin.”

“Arthur.”

“Care to explain where you have been all morning?” he looked at the boy meaningfully.

Merlin sighed.

He handed him the letter he’d received. He didn’t want to talk about the boy’s mother in front of him. He also didn’t want to start digging himself a hole of lies… or at least _another_ hole of lies in his metaphorical field full of maybe fifty other holes. It was hard to keep track.

Merlin watched Arthur’s face to gauge his reaction. A frown creased his brow as his eyes flitted from left to right. When he was done he looked at the boy sadly. He surprised Merlin by offering a smile to the boy.

“I’m Arthur.” He said warmly. He didn’t say _King Arthur_ which was interesting, to say the least. Merlin was glad, though. He thought William might keel over if he knew the man he was now happily chatting to was _the king._

Afterwards Arthur requested to speak to Merlin in private. Or at least he gave him _the look._ Merlin took the boy to Gwen who promised she’d take care of him.

“I’d be delighted!” she’d grinned at him and reached out to William. William had wandered over a little awkwardly. Arthur had given him a nudge to hurry him along and Merlin had given him a sharp look to reprimand him.

He mouthed an animated _“what?!”_ at his manservant. Merlin looked away with pursed lips.

“So what will you do?” Arthur asked as they walked into his chamber.

“I was thinking of sending him to my mother.” Merlin admitted.

Arthur looked surprised.

“I was under the impression his mother had wanted him _here_.”

“Yes, but as much as I’d like for him to stay, I don’t know what to do with him here. There’s no room in Gaius’ chambers for a third person.” Merlin sighed. He looked to Arthur for help, truly torn.

“He could work here. There’s room in the servants’ quarters for him to have a bed. I could make sure he gets one of the better jobs.”

Merlin was pleasantly surprised by his offer. Then he smirked.

“So you’d make sure _he’d_ get a better job but you made _me_ clean out the stables for five years?” He asked, thinking of his earlier days in Camlelot. Fortunately, Arthur had eventually decided Merlin had done his time in the stables and had assigned the job to someone else. After five years, though. _Five years._

Merlin was convinced that the decision was more due to the stench of horse manure that he dragged in than any respect for his manservant’s dignity.

 _“Merlin!”_ he’d said. _“How are you supposed to get me clean when you yourself are filthy? As my servant you are expected to meet some standard of sanitation, not to mention the smell!”_

_“So you want me to take a bath… to give you a bath?”_

_“Yes.”_

_“And when do you propose I do that sire? At some point after or between mucking out your stables, polishing your armour, polishing your boots, washing and mending your clothes, fetching your meals, and running around doing whatever else you, or Gaius might I add, demands of me?” Saving your life, fulfilling my destiny, becoming the greatest sorcerer to ever walk the Earth whilst avoiding execution…_ those parts he’d left out for obvious reasons.

Anyway, it had shut him up and after that he asked Merlin to clean the stables out less and less until Merlin never expected to be asked again.

“Yes, well you must just have one of those faces, _Mer_ lin.” Arthur glared at him back in the present. “And you know very well I could have you back in those stables by sundown if you push me.” 

Merlin screwed his face up in distaste.

“Of course, _sire._ ”

Arthur laughed and patted Merlin on the shoulder.

“Would you really let him stay?” Merlin asked hopefully.

“Of course, Merlin. He’s important to you.”

Merlin’s heart fluttered at that. Arthur’s eyes were soft when he looked at him and oh, _gods,_ Merlin hoped he didn’t hear his breath catch.

“And most importantly his father saved my life. I owe him a debt for that.” Arthur said seriously. Merlin’s eyes snapped up to meet his.

“I know you think I don’t appreciate that but I do. My judgement at the time was clouded with anger because I’d found out he was a sorcerer. It was wrong. Maybe if I hadn’t reacted like that then perhaps things would have been different. Perhaps I would have noticed Kanen before he shot the crossbow. Perhaps…”

Merlin swallowed hard. It was a combination of refreshed grief as he remembered the moment Will had been mortally wounded and the fact that Arthur had admitted he was wrong to have reacted that way to magic. It gave him hope.

“Does the boy have magic?” Arthur asked. He didn’t sound accusatory, or suspicious, just curious. 

Merlin shook his head.

“I won’t… I won’t get angry if he does. Is that why you want to send him to your mother?”

“No, he honestly doesn’t.  I wouldn’t lie about it.” And _why did he have to say that?_ Merlin hated lying to Arthur all the time… _hated, hated, hated it._ Yet here he was saying _he wouldn’t lie_ whenyes, yes he would. He’d lie through his teeth about it if it were so. He’d lie and then tell another lie and sometimes Merlin even forgot what he’d lied about and lie some more to cover it up.

Arthur seemed satisfied with that though. His quiet trusting nature made Merlin ache with guilt. He had such an open expression with Merlin. He trusted him implicitly. This was the only part of Merlin’s destiny he truly hated (other than the whole _‘Arthur will die by Mordred’s hand’_ bit that he’d yet to sort out.)

“Why didn’t you tell me he was the king?” William asked indignantly when Merlin went to collect him from Gwen. The boy had apparently found his confidence. He reminded him of Will more now. He even pulled the same faces. “I looked like a right numpty just chatting away about leap frog and tug of war.” He scowled.

Merlin burst out laughing.

“Well he’s asked you to stay on at the castle. Wants to give you a job and everything.” Merlin said casually, waiting for William’s response.

He looked at him with joy.

“Really?” He smiled. “Do you think he’d let me be a knight?”

Merlin eyed up his skinny frame and grimaced. _Maybe after he’d put some weight on things might look brighter…_

“If it’s meant to be, you may be a knight.” He said. “King Arthur accepts all young men of great skill regardless of blood.”

William nodded. Determination crossed his features. Merlin imagined it would be a good ambition for him to have. He thinks Will might like it, if he knew how Arthur had turned out.

“The King has said you can start work in a few weeks.” Merlin told him. It had been kind on Arthur’s part to give the boy some grieving time. Until then William would spend the days with Gwen whilst Merlin attended to his duties. It was more than any stray orphan bastard might hope from a king but Arthur wasn’t just any king. It reminded Merlin of why Arthur was so special and he was glad to serve him.

 

_The End._

**Author's Note:**

> I hope you enjoyed this story :)


End file.
